the process is the artwork

All work and no play makes a dull girl

My friend Rasmus assisted in the destruction of an artwork at Hordaland Art Centre (HKS).

The whole building had been wrapped in plastic and fabric for the exhibition LEILA by AIPOTU, giving the city of Bergen its own recontextualized Wrapped Kunsthalle. My concern being, obviously, what would happen to all that material when the exhibition was dismounted. And so, Christmas time and all, my loyal friend asked the management of HKS on my behalf, who informed him that it would be thrown away.

Leila, AiPotu (2010) Photo: AiPotu

I could not miss the opportunity of collecting so much waste. Quickly I made my move and arranged a pretty good deal, inheriting the material, free of charge, in exchange for removing the material, free of charge. Equipped with my two feet, two hands (and the occasional help of a couple more hands and feet), plus a trolley (I almost forgot), passers-by could witness the movement of wheels, limbs and plastic walking (or sliding, as the streets were covered in snow at the time) back and forth (that is, the plastic only went one way, and come to think of it, never walked nor slid nor rolled on its own), between HKS and the fine Art Academy, also called the Fine Arts Academy or the Academy of Fine Art (where my studio is currently located). Although situated few meters apart, it was all certainly hard work, for these two prominent buildings, close as they may be, are separated by a steep slope.

 

Workspace, december 2010

I the midst of the art waste dislocation/relocation, my brain managed to inflate my head with thoughts on how to make use of it all. After filling up my studio, I allowed myself to play around with the material, because all work and no play makes Ellen a dull girl. I soon realised that it was in itself, without further transformation, both meaningful and beautiful. So here you can see the discarded material in itself, well, in the form of photographs on a computer screen:

This entry was posted on January 27, 2011 by . It was filed under Art, Artworks, Installation, Institutional critique, My Artworks, Trash Art and was tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

3 Responses

  1. Pingback: Dancing plastic « Refuse to be a coward

  2. Pingback: In media res « Refuse to be a coward

  3. Pingback: Lights off « Refuse to be a coward

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